The ELDT here at the University of York support a webinar platform called Collaborate. Collaborate integrates directly with the VLE, can be used with internal and external people alike and is free to use. You can think of it as an online lecture theatre, seminar or meeting room. Use it to run webinars (“online seminars”) where everyone attends over the internet from their own location using their own device, or to run “hybrid” sessions with some attendees are physically together in a room and others join remotely.

Collaborate comes in two types, which are both available for use: Collaborate Classic (the older offering) and Collaborate Ultra (the newer).

Collaborate is a Blackboard product, just like the Yorkshare VLE. To help users discover and utilise the features of the newer Collaborate Ultra offering, Blackboard are running a series of 10, half an hour webinars across 10 days, starting on May 14th. Each of these webinars will focus on a different core feature of the platform and will actually be delivered via Collaborate Ultra – A good time to try out the tool as a participant!

We have been advised that the sessions will be recorded for dissemination post-event, but we can’t 100% guarantee this will be the case. If you cannot attend any sessions that interest you but would still like to learn about these features feel free to contact us.